--- In cybalist@..., Miguel Carrasquer Vidal <mcv@...> wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Oct 2001 14:30:35 -0800 (PST), george knysh
> <gknysh@...> wrote:
>
> >Just want to draw your attention to a very interesting
> >article by Marek Nowak in the September 2001 issue of
> >ANTIQUITY ("The second phase of neolithization in
> >East-Central Europe", pp. 582-592). Nowak argues that
> >LBK sites "aggregate mostly in small agricultural
> >enclaves distinguished by highly fertile soil" (582).
> >On p. 586 he notes about 11 such on the territory of
> >Poland (perhaps 5-8% of the land).
>
> >Nowak argues that it is only by
> >and by that these foragers became interested in
> >farming. But the break came shortly after 4000 BC. He
> >considers the TRB (Funnel Beaker culture) to be not so
> >much a development of previous farming communities as
> >a creation of Mesolithic ex-foragers ready to make the
> >transition to agriculture.
A quick note. I'm not sure what George takes this to mean, but this
is not a new POV. It has been clear for some time that mesolithic
populations played a big role in the transition to agriculture
throughout Europe. But it clearly makes not sense to say that a
neolithic transition was "not the development of previous farming
communities." That's silly. Are we to assume that people who were
foraging for 6000+ years just happened to create a myriad of
agro-pastoral techniques and adaptions independently just when
neolitic culture shows up? There is a serious underestimation here
of how much these foraging cultures changed in order to become
neolithic.
And that means it took long period of contact and gradual conversion
during which the foraging culture essentially LOST its prior
lifestyle and its mesolithic identity. Again, the gap in material
culture(that is, what we find in the ground) between LBK and TRB is
small compared to the gap between TRB and pre-contact mesolithic
predecessors.
I haven't seen Nowak's article, but I'm sure it does nothing to
support George's idea. There is no evidence to support any idea other
than that LBK AND other neolithic cultures were the major reason that
these local populations converted from foraging to TRB agro-pastoral.
Regards,
Steve Long
etc. e